In-house movement

The search that fails for "manufacture" fails here too. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry's guide reproducing the Swiss watch ordinance contains no occurrence of "in-house" or "calibre maison"; the FH/NIHS list of available Swiss horological standards contains no standard on the term; and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property records industry ordinances for watches and cosmetics only, the watch one governing the words "Swiss" and "Swiss made".

More useful is what the ordinance does say, because it is often read as though it settled the question. Its conditions are about place and cost. Article 1a requires that a watch's "technical development has taken place in Switzerland", that "its movement is Swiss", that "its movement has been cased up in Switzerland", and that "final inspection by the manufacturer took place in Switzerland and at least 60% of the manufacturing costs is generated in Switzerland". Article 2 requires the movement to have "undergone technical development in Switzerland" and to "have been assembled in Switzerland". None of these clauses names the firm that must do the work.

The consequence follows from the text. A watch can satisfy the ordinance, and carry "Swiss made", with a movement developed and built by a separate supplier; a movement designed and built entirely within one company outside Switzerland cannot carry it at all. The 60 per cent rule tests where cost arises, not who did the designing.

What is still unresolved: NIHS 02-04, Vocabulaire horloger – Partie 2: Définitions technico-commerciales, is the document whose stated scope, technico-commercial definitions, could cover a term of this kind. The FH list gives its title only, so it has not been read here.